Five Things We Learned From the 2024 CARNEXT Samurai Japan Series

Markus Solbach delivers a pitch for Team All-Europe in game two of the 2024 CARNEXT Samurai Japan Series at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Japan. (Photo Courtesy of WBSC)

OSAKA, Japan – The 2024 CARNEXT Samurai Japan Series is over, with Japan claiming a two-game sweep against Team All-Europe at the Kyocera Dome with a 5-0 shutout on March 6 and a 2-0 perfect game shutout on March 7.

Here are five things to takeaway from the series:

Despite the Results, All-Europe Was Competitive – Sure, All-Europe lost both games. They didn’t advance a runner to third base in game one and six Japan pitchers combined for a perfect game in game two. Three times in game one, All-Europe got a runner into scoring position with one or fewer outs, but they weren’t able to convert those chances, and Japan got a pair of RBI doubles from Kensuke Kondoh, who might well be the best position player in Nippon Professional Baseball and the best player in the world outside Major League Baseball. In game two, Japan’s pitching was impeccable. There’s not a lot a team can do when they don’t get a baserunner, but All-Europe was in the game until the eighth inning. Neither run scored by Japan in game two was earned, as Shunsuke Tamura, who scored Japan’s first run in the second, reached on an error when third baseman Alex Liddi tried to one-hand Tamura’s hot grounder, only for it to roll under his glove. The eighth inning insurance run by Morishita was unearned as well, with Morishita scoring when Kotaro Kurebayashi’s grounder to short was booted by Edison Valerio.

Baseball Is Growing In Europe – Markus Solbach, a native of Dormagen, North Rhein-Westphalia, Germany, started game two for Europe. Solbach is 32 and has pitched in four different Major League Baseball organizations, rising as high as Triple-A in the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm systems before an ulnar collateral ligament injury and Tommy John surgery put a sudden halt to his career following the 2022 season. “It meant the world to me, to be honest. When Marco (Mazzieri) asked me to be on the team, I had a focus and a goal after the big injury that I had two years ago. Representing Team Germany at a global event like this – there’s three Germans (here), and I got to start one of the two games. I couldn’t have asked for more.

He threw two scoreless innings against the No. 1 team in the World Baseball Rankings, and maybe that can breathe some life into his career. Asked by a reporter from Japan why he continued training after retiring from professional baseball, Solbach said, “My main goal, obviously, was to recover from the Tommy John surgery that I had. I’m 32, and I might have retired, but you never know if there’s an opportunity somewhere. My arm feels good, and if the velocity goes even higher, it might not be the end, you know?”

That Really Happened! What Are the Chances? – Not only did six Japan pitchers – Yumeto Kanemaru, Shinya Matsuyama, Yuto Namakura, Shota Watanabe, Chihiro Sumida, and Atsuki Taneichi – combine for a perfect game in game two, Sumida threw an “immaculate inning” in the sixth, meaning he struck out the side on nine consecutive pitches. The probability of a perfect game in Major League Baseball is approximately 1 in 10,000, while the probability of an immaculate inning is approximately 1 in 40,000. While international baseball doesn’t have a large enough sample of games to accurately calculate the probability of the two feats occurring in the same game, suffice to say it is extraordinarily rare.

Everybody Gets to Pitch! – Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata said he wanted to win both games, and he did, riding Japan’s pitching depth. In all, Ibata sent six different pitchers to the mound in each game, distributing the workload across the entire staff, with every hurler on the roster pitching at least one inning.

パーフェクトゲーム(知らなかったけど)
みんなナイスピッチングでした✨#侍JAPAN pic.twitter.com/v0f7h0YxDP

— 隅田 知一郎/Sumida Chihiro (@sumida_lions16) March 7, 2024